Spirited Away

To animators across the world, Hayao Miyazaki is the best. Inside the animation department, his works is respected, and fans of anime wait for each new Miyazaki film with the same amount of overloading impatience as displayed by fans of famous novel series for the next book in the series. James Berardinelli said in his review, “In mainstream United States movie-going circles, Miyazaki is not a well-known name, which is one reason why, several years ago, Walt Disney Pictures purchased the North American rights to Miyazaki’s catalog.” While there were some issues with the subject where the dubbing and distribution of “Princess Mononoke” were handled here, more care was taken for “Spirited Away,” released in 2001. Two American animation celebrities – Pixar’s John Lasseter and Disney’s Kirk Wise (the director of several animated movies, including “Beauty and the Beast”) – were assigned to convert the Japanese version of the movie into one for American audiences.

Berardinelli said, “Let me state up front that I am neither a fan of, nor an expert on, anime. In fact, I’m not a lover of animation in general. But I know when I’m in the presence of good storytelling, and Spirited Away represents that.” Watching this movie, you immediately notice two things – the animation is breathtaking (something that will come as no surprise to anyone who has seen one of Miyazaki’s films) and the story takes you in so many unexpected directions. Berardinelli admitted, “One of the biggest problems I have with many animated films (even the best ones) is plot predictability. That’s not the case here.”

“Spirited Away” takes aspects of “Alice in Wonderland” and “The Wizard of Oz” and uses them in ways to create an original story about a 10-year-old girl, Chihiro, voiced by Daveigh Chase, who, along with her parents, walk through a tunnel that takes them into the spirit world. After a witch named Yubaba (Suzanne Pleshette), turns her parents (Michael Chiklis and Lauren Holly) into pigs, Chihiro must find work in the spirit world, where humans are not liked, and find out a way to convince Yubaba to change her parents back into humans and let them move to their new home. With the help from Haku (Jason Marsden), Yubaba’s apprentice, and Lin (Susan Egan), a “big sister” type, Chihiro gets a job at Yubaba’s bathhouse for spirits, and there her job to save her family starts. However, as problems come, she finds other work to be done and other friends who want to help her.

Everything about this story is created for animation. Many of the characters are shape-shifters (boys become dragons, adults become pigs, a giant baby becomes a bloated mouse, three heads become a clone of the baby) and the bathhouse is visited by numerous different strange and unusual spirits. For example, the boiler operator Kamaji, voiced by David Odgen Stiers. At first, he’s just an uptight old man with a fuzzy beard. Then, we see that he has eight legs and can walk like a spider. We also find out that he’s not as scary as he looks. His first image that was made goes away and he becomes one of Chihiro’s numerous helpers.

Miyazaki is an earth lover, and his films often have a strong saving environment message. (This was a basis to “Princess Mononoke.”) In “Spirited Away,” one of the visitors to the bathhouse is a river spirit who has been really badly polluted by mud and other waste stuff that his smell causes people to run and he really needs a powerful cleaning to wash away the filth. It takes a lot of work, but he is eventually restored to his previous self. Miyazaki took that from when he went to clean a river with some of his friends, who tied a rope and all pulled together to clean the river.

The film’s animation is beautiful, with perfectly-detailed backgrounds and flawless foregrounds. Berardinelli stated, “Unlike many animators, Miyazaki still relies almost exclusively upon hand-drawn artwork (although he employs some computer technology to touch up and enhance the final product), and his meticulous care shows. The colors are bright and vivid, and some of the scenes (especially those taking place during a rainstorm) are peerless in the world of motion picture animation. Also, with a running length that exceeds two hours (124 minutes), Spirited Away requires approximately 40% more cells than what is needed for the average Disney release.”

Miyazaki does not make “Spirited Away” so much of a family film, even though his main target is children. This is a true family film, where adults will be as mesmerized by how enchanted the characters and situations are like children will. Berardinelli stated, “The pace is a little slower than the average animated film – there is not as much frantic action – but not so languid that younger viewers will become restless. The dubbing into English is very good (as is voice selection), so there is no subtitle barrier. Overall, while Spirited Away may not be as complex and imaginative as Princess Mononoke in some areas, it is as beautifully rendered and no less sophisticated in its outlook.” Miyazaki has given another success and, in the middle of the quality decrease when Disney was releasing “direct-to-video” films, a reason for animation-lovers to celebrate.

As I had hinted last Friday, this is my all time favorite Studio Ghibli film. I know I’m not alone with that, since a lot of people seem to agree. It’s the best coming-of-age film that the company came out with. This was the second Ghibli film that I had seen, and it was in theaters. I was about 13 when it was released in the USA and I instantly fell in love with it. The characters, the voice acting, the story, the animation, everything about this film just blew me away. If you haven’t seen this film, you shouldn’t even be reading this review. Go out and see this movie right now because you will love it as well.

Look out tomorrow when I let everyone know my thoughts on “The Cat Returns” in “Studio Ghibli Month.”